THE
P RTAL
June 2012
Page 7
Anglican
The Reverend
Sir Henry Williams Luminary
Baker, Bart
by Keith Robinson
One supposes
that there really was a time when each village had its own resident parish priest. (In
actual fact, it’s not all that long ago.) He was one of the best educated people in the parish, often the son of
the local landed family, and lived in some style in the second largest house in the place.
He had the freehold of the church, glebe and
parsonage, and often only a few hundred souls to care
for. He could be known personally to everyone, and
had undoubted status. Of course, it wasn’t always as
blissful as it sounds, but there certainly was a pastoral
ideal which could be found all over England. The
country parson often seems to have had time on his
hands, and might apply this to all sorts of areas of
study.
hymns have now fallen out of use, because they are
“exceedingly plaintive, sometimes even to sadness.
Even those which at first seem bright and cheerful
have an undertone of plaintiveness, and leave a dreamy
sadness upon the spirit of the singer” (Thus John Julian,
the Hymnographer) “If a subject presented itself to his
mind with striking contrasts of lights and shadows, he
almost invariably chose shelter in the shadows”.
Oxford Movement
The New English Hymnal preserves no fewer than
The small village of Monkland, two miles south west ten of his hymns, which are probably arguably his best,
of Leominster in Herefordshire, was a typical rural and to which Julian’s assessment scarcely applies. They
parish of this type. The thirteenth century church, include “Shall we not love thee, mother dear”, and
with the adjacent Vicarage stood a little apart from the “Lord thy Word abideth”.
majority of the 211 inhabitants.
It is certainly worth looking them up in your
In 1851 it received a young new incumbent, the son hymnbook. Surely his most memorable hymn of all
of Vice-Admiral Sir Henry Loraine Baker, and heir must be his beautiful and enduring paraphrase of
to the Baronetcy to which he succeeded in the same Psalm 23, “The King of love my shepherd is”.
year. This Sir Henry Williams Baker, Bart had been
educated at Trinity College Cambridge and remained Last words
at Monkland as Vicar until his death. Henry was a
The end came, at a relatively early age, on the 12
natural supporter of the principles of the Oxford February 1877. As he lay dying in the Vicarage, the
Movement, which is generally thought of as beginning last words to be heard from his lips were these:
in 1833.
He supervised a thorough restoration of his parish
church in 1865, but he is most widely remembered for
his hymns, of which he wrote a considerable number,
sometimes composing also their tunes. In the Revised
edition of Hymns Ancient and Modern of 1874 there
are no fewer than thirty three of his hymns and litanies.
Perhaps that is not altogether surprising since he was
the first editor of Hymns Ancient and Modern, a very
groundbreaking work at the time.
The New English Hymnal
Baker’s style is orthodox in doctrine, simple in
language and earnest in intention. Most of his
Perverse and foolish, oft I strayed,
but yet in love he sought me,
and on his shoulder gently laid,
and home, rejoicing, brought me.
A Date for your diary
The Ordinariate Day
at Walsingham
Saturday15th Sept 2012